I'm in CA, and about to form a corporation. I've read lots of conflicting things on the web. I was going to pay to talk to a lawyer. Then it hit me, YC does this all the time, numerous times a year. They must have this process highly optimized.<p>Can you share the documents you use to get YC startups incorporated, along with administrative info (things like: pay franchise tax every year) that needs to be covered?<p>Thanks!
Good idea. We should do something like this. I can't do it, though. Jessica is the one who does all this stuff. Maybe she'll post something. But if she does it won't be soon, because she is busy now getting this summer's startups set up.
One useful resource: (Just in case, if you have not seen it before.)<p><a href="http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/</a><p>Some previous related discussions here:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41308" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41308</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37112" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37112</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244009" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244009</a>
The trick with incorporation is not the formation of the company as seen by the secretary of state's office. As a previous poster pointed out, that's a standard form with nothing that will make or break your startup.<p>What matters initially is the founder agreement structure. Later on, the terms of the first round of funding.<p>YC and TheFunded.com already put out there terms for funding and terms for founders. I believe with license to use on your own startup.
I dunno how it is in CA, but here you just fill out a simple form on the state website to incorporate. I don't think pg posting the YC info will help you very much, since its very basic stuff like name and address.<p>The administrative things, you don't really need YC specific info either, just ask one of many CA based startups on here.
What I'd appreciate seeing is the YC shareholder's agreement. It will be time for us to incorporate soon, but we've been putting it off because we don't know how to handle setting up things like a dispute resolution mechanism, vesting, terms in case one of the founders wants to sell to a third-party, etc.
YC isn't a charity. They compete in a marketplace like any other business. Any optimization you speak of is a competitive advantage. Why would they comply with your request?<p>Somewhat relevant:<p><a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/23/adeo-ressi-fights-atrocities-of-investors-with-new-class-of-founder-stock/" rel="nofollow">http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/23/adeo-ressi-fights-atroc...</a>